The Evolution of a Goblin to the Peak

"Is this the place?" Amanda inquired.

"Yes, according to my information, there's a hidden base here," Souta replied while looking around.

They arrived in a place between two mountains. The whole area was covered in trees and gigantic rocks. There were low-level monsters here, but they didn't pose any problems for the two at all.

"What if it's false?" Amanda asked while jumping on top of the tree to observe the surroundings.

"Then we can't do anything about it. With our current situation, we just need to confirm every piece of information with our own two eyes."

"I can't recall anything about my childhood because of my trauma, so I can't tell if this place is really related to the Witch Clan."

"It's fine. I understand, so you just need to precisely follow my command, and I will help you fulfill your goal."

"Um... I don't know how to reply to that, but it's the first time that I've gotten intel regarding my clan. Using the organization that I've built in Blue Ray City, I tried to gather information, but it was useless. My influence wasn't enough, and my organization was just a small group in that country. I couldn't get those high classified information."

"Come here; I think I've found it."

Amanda jumped down on the trees, and she approached Souta, who was squatting between a meter-tall rectangular rock.

"Below here. We can push this rock aside, and we will find the passage."

Souta said as he placed his palm on the smooth surface of the rock. Finding the passage will be easy if he uses his energy, but before coming here, they discovered traces of people. So they didn't dare use their energy in case the other people had some sort of sensory type mage or sensory artifact.

They didn't know the goal of the other group, but it's better to be cautious. Until they confirmed the status of the other group, Souta wouldn't let down his guard.

Souta slowly pushed the rock to the side, and a dark passage was revealed in front of his eyes.

"There's really a path..."

Amanda muttered as she narrowed her eyes. She did every kind of vile thing in the past just to get a piece of information from her clan, but who would have thought that she would find a clue this way.

Souta jumped down after confirming that there were no people around, and Amanda followed him.

The whole place was murky and filled with dust. The soil on the ground was dried, and cracks formed around it. It feels like this place hasn't been visited by people for a long time.

But this couldn't deceive Souta. There was a faint mana lingering in the air, and it was different from natural mana.

The natural mana in the air was colorless, and it didn't have any attributes or characteristics. But the mana that came from people was different; it had a unique energy signature or wave that differed for each person in the whole world.

It's like a fingerprint, but in the form of energy. Also, the energy that came from people had attributes depending on their elemental affinities.

Amanda couldn't sense this, but Souta could certainly detect it. His training in the living labyrinth was not for nothing. The place where he couldn't use his five senses except for his sense of energy greatly enhanced his energy detection ability.

"It doesn't look like there are people here."

Amanda spoke in a low voice.

"No, people have been visiting this place, but they haven't touched anything here. I'm sure that we would uncover something if we followed this path."

Souta glanced at Amanda and warned her not to use her mana. They had to be cautious to be able to successfully infiltrate the depths of this underground base.

The two moved forward for half an hour, but they haven't found anything yet. They were slow like snails, but everything in the surrounding area was examined carefully by them.

This whole place was like a maze, as there were dozens of paths heading in different directions. In this situation, the two decided to stick together in case of an emergency so they could work together.

Soon, they found an old room. The room didn't have a door, and it was quite wide inside. There were drawers, but it was filled with mold, and the same for the other accessories in the room.

Souta looked around without touching anything. This room has a length of twenty meters and a width of seven meters. Its height was three meters.

From the design of this room, it feels like it was specially made for a certain purpose, but Souta could guess it as most of the things here have mold on them.

"This... I'm familiar with this..."

Amanda muttered in a low voice.

Hmm...?

Souta turned around, and he followed Amanda's line of sight. He saw a carving on the wall. The carving had the shape of a shield, and there were various weapons and utensils on top of it.

'Witch...'

The word "witch" was the first thing that came to his mind. He was sure that this strange carving was the symbol of Amanda's Witch Clan.

In the Great World Imperium, the symbol of Witches was a broom. It was a sign of respect for the strongest witch that had ever lived, and the soul weapon of the strongest witch was a broom.

Amanda was about to touch the carving when Souta grabbed her wrist.

"Stop! Don't touch it! Who knows if there's a mechanism behind it that can only be activated by a person who has the bloodline of a witch like you."

Souta spoke in a serious tone. No matter how much Amanda missed her clan, it wasn't enough for her to ruin his clan. They would eventually arrive at the truth, but for now, she had to stay rational.

"Oh, sorry..." Amanda came back to her senses as she took a deep breath to calm her tense muscles. "I'm fine."

"Good. Then, I want to know, what is this carving?" Souta asked.

"...I'm not sure, but I recall seeing this carving in my childhood. I have a feeling that this is the symbol of our clan." Amanda said to him.

"I see..."

Souta nodded, and he thought that he was right. Amanda looked like she forgot everything about her childhood except for the fact that her clan was massacred. Maybe someone deliberately messed with her memory in the past.

If the Witch Clan was really massacred in the past, then Eilish would have information about it, albeit not the full details. At least she would learn that the entire Witch Clan was gone, yet she didn't have any idea about the Witch Clan.

Eilish was a person in the shackled realm, so her influence must be great. It would be a different matter if she gave him false information.

If that happens, then Souta will plan his revenge on Eilish.

'At least, this underground place is connected to the Witch Clan. It confirms one of my guesses; now I just need to find a few more pieces of evidence.'

Souta said inwardly as he glanced at Amanda.

"Let's go now."

The two left the room, and they continued to move forward. They found stairs and went downstairs, only to find a huge and wide space in front of their eyes.

There were pieces of round shields, swords, spears, bows, and chains on the ground. But all of them were full of rust, so they were useless in real battle as they were too brittle.

"This is..."

Souta looked ahead and saw a fifteen-meter-tall metallic gate. The left part of the gate had a deep red color, while the right part was a deep blue like an ocean. The symbol was carved in the center of the gate.

It looked majestic with its golden trimming on the edge.

The gate was glistening, and time couldn't rob it of its greatness, just like weapons above blue grade. It felt like a newly crafted gate, but in fact, this gate was old. It was older than him and Amanda.

Amanda was amazed when she saw this piece of art.

Souta was about to step forward when he suddenly felt danger. He retracted his foot and looked at the side of the gate, only to see two majestic humanoid golems. The golems were perfectly carved, similar to the bodies of humans. It has a height of four meters, and the two golems were holding a scimitar in each of their hands.

The two golems trembled, and dust fell from their bodies. Their weapons and armor shone brightly as the thick layer of dust disappeared from its surface.

With just a glance, Souta could guess that these scimitars were high-quality orange-grade weapons, and the armor of the two golems had the same grade.

"Who would have thought that these two golems are still active."

He muttered while looking at the two golems on each side of the gate. If he stepped forward, these two golems would attack him.